You can take the Girl out of Mangalore but you can’t take Mangalore out of the Girl.
We are torn between nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.
Carson McCullers
We‘ve always been Picklers; a people who pickle. A hobby, a seasonal passion or something of an obsession. Some kitchens or store-rooms could put a science lab to shame with all the floating foods in brine.
Just writing this, my mouth is salivating. The kholak ghalle list was long at my grandma‘s and the Buyav were the finest interior decor, but I don’t know when and why around the late 1990‘s or a few years later they slowly disappeared. Now I need to go hunt for them. It’s a strange feeling, a hunt for things that were everywhere only 2 decades ago.
A year ago, I was struggling with my weight and body image, that is something I thought I’d never struggle with. I’m blest with my paternal genes of the healthiest metabolism; until something just didn’t feel right.
It was winter and I was trying out summer or warm weather clothes in anticipation of our India trip. Nothing in my wardrobe fit me and I panicked. There’s always been times where I yelled, “Kevin I’ve nothing to wear!!”
Only this time I sobbed, because I genuinely had nothing I could wear.
After the travel I was even worse, mentally exhausted from barely eating but feeling full. I tried a couple of home remedies, ate cleaner, and realised this was something that happened every spring, it’s after a really difficult flu season and atleast 1 course of antibiotics or flu medication my appetite and mood was hurt weeks or months after.
I do not have the full science behind this, just my journals showing my patterns of feeling like a balloon and mentally drained.
On one occasion my doctor advices me to try out local foods for little discomforts, instead of synthetic options (from a pharmacy). For instance, switching to local honey from the neighborhood beekeepers to help fight my new peach allergy or sauerkraut to put back some gut bacteria for my new acid reflux situation, helping me digest better.
This is when I learned the vital role good microbiome plays in our gut. The gut bacteria or microbiome is like those Pokémon cards kids today collect to brag about or our dad’s retirement whiskey collection. The Gut microbiome is also a collectible. It begins the moment we are birthed, our mums start us off with a few of her favorite microbiome and we add or kill based on choices we make, leaving behind a good memory or an even better metabolism.
The Gut Microbiome and hormones are the two strings that bind together our immunity and functional harmony in our body. We only talk about the big guys; the heart, liver or the kidneys when treated poorly can have fatal consequences but no one talks about the underdogs.
Especially we women should rally around these like our lives depend on them because , They do ! Think of it as- the Gut being the brain of our lower body and if left unhappy can truly fog the brain on our shoulders. Explaining some of the problems we women face with our gut health and mood swings with the fluctuations of oestrogen. Needless to say the sudden drop in hormones (as in Menopause) are bound to reshape the collection of gut microbiome making one consider a complete new way of eating and relationship with food.
I’m now at that age where on passing, I hear so many women, a decade or 2 older speaking of their horror stories; the Phases of Menopause and the roller coaster relationship with diet. The weight around the belly never seems to shed! It’s like our bodies are preparing and bracing for a famine that’s (thank goodness) not coming. The stress hormones are so elevated the body gets just one message: Store, conserve, pack and our friendly microbiomes disappear in the chaos, if only there was a way to rebuild.
It’s been years, since that conversation with my doctor and it still lives rent free in my mind. Because the more I read up on Gut microbiome, the more horrified I got; how much my diet has changed in just 1 decade and every antibiotic course or medication probably did more damage than good.
I’m grateful I have access to food that’s free of pollutants and is well regulated but I feel it’s not enough in my case to just eat healthy. In order to feel good I need to do more. I needed to reflect on what’s missing because that good metabolism I once had, came with its own memory.
I started making little changes out of curiosity, I looked for fruits and vegetables that I ate often as a child or adolescent, as often as I could. Sadly there are so many varieties of leafy greens I relished back in Mangalore, that I may never buy in stores here but will simply have to grow myself every summer. One thing that I definitely can do immediately and effortlessly is, to Pickle.
I’m only 35 and may seem premature but it’ll take me years to put back the bacteria that I’ve lost to monotonous eating habits to make way for the busy schedule. Like anything else in life, with patience and a little bit of effort, a lot can be reversed.
Just like that, I’m a Pickler !
Here’s a picture of me with my very first batch of pickles. Kohlrabi & carrots strips. Red radish & beet slices. And a medley of cucumber, radish & carrots. With Mangalore spices: a Byadagi chilli, bay leaf and pepper corns.
A simple humble pickle is packed with so many memories and emotions that the nutritional content cannot possibly compare, the reason for my new found love for pickling.
My Ugly Journal 